http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s2175-97902017000116035
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*Correspondence: Z. Haramiova. Department of Organisation and Management of Pharmacy. Faculty of Pharmacy. Comenius Univer-sity in Bratislava. Odbojarov 10, Bratislava 832 32. Slovak Republic. E-mail: haramiova@fpharm.uniba.sk
Purchase of prescription and OTC medicines in Slovakia: factors
influencing patients’ expectations and satisfaction
Zuzana Haramiova*, Zuzana Kobliskova, Jurina Soltysova
Department of Organisation and Management of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Slovakia is a country where the purchase of OTC (over the counter) medicines outside the pharmacy is not allowed by the government. This study aimed at evaluating patients’ satisfaction and acceptance of community pharmacists. Customer’s behaviour and expectations inluencing the purchase of prescription and OTC medicines were analyzed. A structured questionnaire having 15 multiple-choice questions was used to analyze the descriptive parameters. Data collection lasted from January to February 2014. The sample size consisted of 357 high-school educated individuals under 40 years of age. The survey showed that the prescription and OTC medicines were bought equally. The participants reported a 96.0%, 96.3% and 90.2% satisfaction rate with willingness and approach of the community pharmacist, pharmacy services and provision of drug information respectively. As for the OTC medicines, 89.5% people considered the pharmacist an expert: 88.2% purchased medicines with pharmacist’s recommendation, 97.8% needed a professional counselling and 97.2% required a pharmacist’s guidance. As for the prescription drugs, only 72.1% considered the pharmacist an expert: 96.3% suggested that physician’s prescription was signiicant and 88.3% considered pharmacist’s guidance in the process of selection of prescription medicines nonessential. A comprehensible and respectable conversation was highly expected in regards to both the OTC and prescription medicines.
Uniterms: Pharmaceutical Care/study/Slovakia. Community Pharmacy/Slovakia. Community Pharmacists/study/Slovakia. Patients/use of medicines. Patient satisfaction. Patient expectation. Medicines/prescription medicines.
INTRODUCTION
Two types of dispensing activities are inevitably performed in community pharmacies - dispensing of prescription medicines accompanied by professional consultation, and provision of over the counter (OTC) medicines along with advice on self-care (Pharmacy Board of Australia, 2015). Facing the challenges of self-care, pharmaceutical care has become even more important over the past decades. (WHO, 1998). For the pharmacists, their greater involvement in patients’ self-care also means greater responsibility towards their customers. There is an increased need for accountability of pharmacists since appropriate self-medication is far from being a safe practice, particularly in the case of
non-responsible self-medication (Ruiz, 2010). Community pharmacists are often the only health experts, able to help patients in making informed decisions about their self-care and prevent the risks associated with self-medication. Comprehensive and adequate dispensing processes of prescription and OTC medicines require greater focus on patients’ health needs than on product marketing (Bennadi, 2013).
meets patients’ expectations in real-life practice. Even though patients’ satisfaction is not a precisely defined concept, it is recognised as an important quality indicator of the services delivery system (Al-Abri, Al-Balushi, 2014). The relationship between patient expectations and satisfaction is complex. Opinions vary on the extent to
which patients’ expectations and satisfaction inluence their
health outcomes. Some suggest that higher expectations predict greater satisfaction, others report that satisfaction may sometimes be deceptively high due to low expectations (Kassam,Collins, Berkowitz, 2012; Licina et al., 2012).
Slovakia, as a country in transition, provides mainly traditional pharmaceutical services, such as: dispensing of prescription and OTC medicines; prescription and OTC medicines counselling, self-care consultancy and preparation of medicines. A total of 4,419 pharmacists in 1,972 community pharmacies currently provide pharmaceutical care in Slovakia (Slovak Chamber of Pharmacists, 2016). Intensive development of pharmaceutical care in Slovakia, similar to other former post-socialistic countries, have brought many positive elements over recent years (Szalayova et al., 2014). Nevertheless, the traditional approach to pharmaceutical practice persists, and the progress of patient-oriented pharmaceutical care is slow. Dispensing of medicines, as the main part of pharmaceutical care is regulated by European legislation (Wiedenmayer et al., 2006). Provision of medicines is restricted to bricks-and-mortar pharmacies, whereas internet pharmacies can also provide OTC medicines. Prescription medicines account for approximately 89% of the overall turnover in Slovak pharmacies (Szalayova et al., 2014) while the share of OTC medicines is only around 10%. The data describing the current position of community pharmacies as medicinal and business entities are limited (Malovecká et al., 2015).
Most of the non-chain pharmacies face inancial instability.
Regardless of the lack of reliable information sources in this
ield, there are a few studies which map patients’ satisfaction
with pharmaceutical care and their expectations towards services provided by community pharmacies in Slovakia (Minarikova, 2015; Minarikova,Malovecká, Foltán, 2015).
The objective of this study was to identify the role of community pharmacists in prescription and OTC medicines counselling. Furthermore, it focuses on evaluating customer behaviour during the purchase of prescription and OTC medicines in relation to patient satisfaction and their expectations.
METHODS
We developed a structured survey instrument from an already published study (Villako,Volmer, Raal,
2012). All items were translated into the Slovak language using back translation. Subsequently, single items were
slightly modiied to assure clarity of understanding for
lay population and to mirror the purpose of the survey better. The researchers performed a systematic face
validity assessment of the inal instrument in cooperation with ive professionals in the ield of pharmaceutical care
in Slovakia. They agreed that the instrument showed a high level of face validity. The final questionnaire is
included at the end of this article. It consists of ifteen
multiple-choice items addressing the following aspects: (1) socio-demographic information (age, gender, education, monthly income) of surveyed participants; (2) purchase information of prescription medicines, OTC medicines and dietary supplements (vitamins, minerals and herbal products); (3) satisfaction with and trustworthiness towards community pharmacists in regards to pharmaceutical care provision; (4) expectations towards community pharmacists during the purchase of prescription and/or OTC medicines. For open questions, a four-point Likert scale was used. We performed pilot testing of the instrument on ten randomly chosen patients of a community pharmacy that were asked for additional feedback on wording, clarity, and format of the questionnaire and the accompanying instructions. Refinements were required within the accompanying instructions only. Results from pilot testing were not
included in the inal study analysis. Data collection took
place from January to February 2014 using Google Drive Questionnaire system to reach the participants.
RESULTS
During the eight-week study period, 402 respondents participated in completing the questionnaire. From these, only 357 fully completed questionnaires and were included
in the inal study analysis. Respondents’ characteristics are
summarised in Table I. The majority of the participants were under 40 years of age (79.8%), female (61.7%) and high school educated (69.7%). The results showed that during the last 12 months, participants had purchased both OTC (31.9%) and prescription medicines (30.2%)
equally often. More speciically, prescription medicines
medicines (36.7%) together with analgesics for oral use (26.3%) were the most frequently purchased OTC medicines. These were followed by topical analgesics
and anti-inlammatory medicines (11.2%), medicines for
gastrointestinal disorders (7.3%), antihistamines (7.3%), tonics (1.7%) and others (9.5%).
Study participants showed high satisfaction (fully satisfied / rather satisfied) with the community pharmacists’ willingness and approach (96.1%) as well as with the community pharmacy services (96.4%). Lower satisfaction was reported with the provision of drug information (90.2%).
Most of the surveyed participants (91.3%) considered the pharmacists to be experts on drugs and trusted them (certainly yes / probably yes). More specifically, the pharmacists were considered experts on prescription medicines and OTC medicines together with dietary supplements by 72.1% and 89.5% of the participants respectively.
While recommendation by a physician was the most
important factor inluencing the purchase of prescription
medicines (96.3%), recommendation by a pharmacist
was the most important factor inluencing the purchase of
OTC medicines (88.2%). Recommendation by family and
friends was more signiicant for OTC than prescription
medicines (53.2% vs. 42.3%) and likewise was the price (58.6% vs. 42.1%). The impact of drug advertisement on purchase decisions was reported to be small in both cases (5.2 % Rx; 12.6% OTC).
Participants reported high expectations towards pharmacists during the purchase of prescription as well as OTC medicines. Comprehensible conversation (99.2% Rx; 99.5% OTC) and respectable communication (99.0% Rx; 98.8% OTC) count to the most frequent expectations of the participants. Pharmacist’s guidance on the selection of appropriate medicines (97.2%) and professional
counselling (97.8%) were signiicant expectations mostly
in regards to OTC medicines.
TABLE I - Characteristics of the surveyed population (n=357)
Characteristics n (%)
Gender Male
Female
137 (38.3) 220 (61.7)
Age (years)
≤ 25
26-40 41-55
≥ 56
139 (38.9) 146 (40.9) 41 (11.5)
31 (8.7)
Level of education
Primary school Secondary school
High school
10 (2.8) 98 (27.5) 249 (69.7)
Monthly income (euro)
≤ 300
301 – 800
≥ 801
119 (33.3) 118 (33.1) 120 (33.6)
Localisation of the most visited type of pharmacy
Hospital Health care facility
Place of residence Shopping centers
6 (1.7) 74 (20.7) 180 (50.4)
97 (27.2)
The most frequently purchased product from community pharmacies during the last 12 months
Rx medicines for acute disease Rx medicines for chronic disease
OTC medicines Dietary supplements
Other
65 (18.2) 43 (12.0) 114 (31.9)
93 (26.1) 42 (11.8)
The most frequently purchased OTC medicines from community pharmacies during the last 12 months
Analgesics Cold, cough medicines Medicines for gastrointestinal disorders
Tonics
Analgesic and anti-inlammatory ointments
Antihistamines Other
94 (26.3) 131 (36.7)
26 (7.3) 6 (1.7) 40 (11.2)
DISCUSSION
Appropriate information provided to patients
contributes to safe and efective treatment. Pharmacists
and physicians play a key role in this process. They are the health care professionals authorised and obliged to provide specialised information as part of their dispensing and consulting activities. Their crucial importance lies not only
TABLE II - Satisfaction with community pharmacists (%; n = 357)
Level of satisfaction
Fully satisied Rather satisied
n (%)
Rather not satisied Not satisied at all
n (%)
Satisfaction with community pharmacy services 344 (96.4) 13 (3.6) Satisfaction with information about drugs provided by pharmacists 322 (90.2) 35 (9.8) Satisfaction with willingness and approach of pharmacists 343 (96.1) 14 (3.9)
TABLE III - Recognition of the pharmacist as an expert on drugs (%; n = 357)
Level of recognition
Certainly yes Probably yes
n (%)
Probably no Certainly no
n (%)
Do you consider the pharmacist to be an expert on prescription medicines? 258 (72.3) 100 (27.7) Do you consider the pharmacist to be an expert on OTC medicines and dietary
supplements?
319 (89.4) 38 (10.6)
Do you trust the pharmacist to be an expert on medicines? 326 (91.3) 31 (8.7)
TABLE IV - Factors inluencing the purchase of medicines (%; n = 357)
Factor
Strongly agree / Agree n (%)
Strongly disagree /Disagree n (%)
Rx OTC Rx OTC
Recommendation by physician 344 (96.3) 296 (83.0) 13 (3.7) 61 (17.0)
Recommendation by pharmacist 314 (88.0) 315 (88.2) 43 (12.0) 42 (11.8)
Recommendation by family and friends 151 (42.3) 190 (53.2) 206 (57.7) 167 (46.8)
Price 150 (42.0) 209 (58.5) 207 (58.0) 148 (41.5)
Advertisement 19 (5.3) 45 (12.6) 338 (94.7) 312 (87.4)
TABLE V - Participant’s expectations towards pharmacists during purchase of medicines (%; n = 357)
Expectations
Strongly agree / Agree n (%)
Strongly disagree / Disagree n (%)
Rx OTC Rx OTC
Professional counselling 334 (93.6) 349 (97.8) 23 (6.4) 8 (2.2) Pharmacist’s guidance on selection of appropriate
medicine
315 (88.2) 347 (97.2) 42 (11.8) 10 (2.8)
Respectable communication 353 (98.9) 352 (98.6) 4 (1.1) 5 (1.4) Comprehensible conversation 354 (99.2) 355 (99.4) 3 (0.8) 2 (0.6) Fast and pleasant service 341 (95.5) 340 (95.2) 16 (4.5) 17 (4.8)
in responsible guidance by choosing the right medicines, but also in the consecutive monitoring of the treatment, including self-medication. Currently, the main health-related activity of a pharmacist is to assure the quality of drug dispensing (Beney,Bero, Bond, 2000). Many factors related to pharmacists, patients and medicines
afect the quality of drug dispensing process. A Brazilian
study pointed out that pharmacists lack the satisfactory knowledge required for drug dispensing. The results showed that there is a need to restructure pharmaceutical education in respect to strengthening the role of the pharmacist in the pharmacotherapy (Reis et al., 2015).
Evaluation of patients’ satisfaction with health care is considered to be a tool for improvement of its quality. It also indicates the fulfilment of patients’ individual demands and needs. Previous publications confirmed high patient satisfaction with provided pharmaceutical care in Slovakia. In a regional survey, 82.0% of the respondents reported their satisfaction with provided pharmaceutical care (Minarikova,Malovecká, Foltán, 2015). The later national survey revealed a different evaluation of individual dimensions of pharmaceutical care: while 86.7% of the respondents provided a positive assessment of Interpersonal Relationship, only 65.4% of the respondents positively evaluated the Managing Therapy (Minarikova, 2015). This research consistently showed high patient satisfaction with the willingness and approach of community pharmacists (96.0%) as well as with pharmacy services provided by community pharmacists (96.3%). In this study lower satisfaction with information on medicines (90.2%) was also reported. Pharmacy services offered in a community pharmacy include dispensing, product-related services and pharmaceutical care services, such as immunisations, smoking cessation assistance, health screening, medication therapy management, wellness screening, nutritional support, and disease management services (Doucette
et al., 2006). Providing additional pharmacy services is consistent with the pharmacy professions movement to provide pharmaceutical care and to expand the roles of pharmacists in medication use beyond distributional activities. It is necessary to emphasise, that conditions for this type and extent of pharmacy services are not adequate
in Slovakia and community pharmacists mainly ofered
dispensing and product related services.
High patient satisfaction was related to high patient expectations in our survey. Respondents expected comprehensible conversation, respectable communication including fast and pleasant service in case of prescription and OTC medicines. Professional counselling and guidance by the pharmacist on the selection of an
appropriate medicine were the most important aspects in the case of OTC medicines. As Schommer concluded, patients’ expectations and knowledge of counselling services provided by pharmacists are important for the provision of these services. The potential positive outcomes that result from counselling can remain unrealised if patients do not attend or comply with the counselling (Schommer, 1997). Conirming the results of an Estonian survey (Villako,Volmer, Raal, 2012), the purchase of medicines in Slovak community pharmacies is influenced mainly by recommendations from health care professionals. In the case of prescription medicines patients trust more physicians (96.3%), while in case of OTC medicines, recommendations from pharmacists were more important than recommendations from physicians (88.2% vs. 83.0%). This corresponds with the
indings of our study where participants considered the
pharmacist to be an expert on OTC medicines and dietary supplements (89.5%) more than on prescription medicines (72.1%). Furthermore, our study showed a low impact of drug advertisements and drug price on the purchase of medicines. The Slovak legislation does not allow advertisement of prescription medicines to the public, but advertisement of OTC medicines is intensive and frequent. Advertisement of products is a basic marketing tool for a successful purchase, although people do not recognise its impact on their decision-making process (Al-Haddad, Hamam, Al-Shakhshir, 2014).
Several studies investigated patient’s perception of pharmacists (Catic, Jusufovic, Tabakovic, 2013) (Kelly et al., 2014). Minarikova puts forward that 73.6% of the respondents considered the pharmacist to be an expert on medicines, medical devices and other goods in the pharmacy. Furthermore, 65.1% of the respondents accepted the pharmacist as an advisor and expert on health issues, disease treatment, and disease prevention (Minarikova,Malovecká, Foltán, 2015). In the current study, 91.3% of the participants trusted the pharmacist as an expert on medicines. Paradoxically, pharmacists’ self-evaluation is worse. They mostly viewed themselves primarily as “dispensers of medication,” not patient-centred practitioners (Rosenthal et al., 2011).
may not properly represent the overall Slovak population. Many variables, such as age, gender or education level
can be signiicantly associated with the satisfaction level
and patients’ requirements on the pharmacist. Further, detailed analysis of the correlation between these factors and marketing data is necessary and highly recommended. The knowledge of these relationships could provide us with valuable information necessary for the provision of personalised high-quality pharmaceutical care.
CONCLUSION
This research, likewise the previous ones, points out that Slovaks are very satisfied with community pharmacists and have high expectations towards provided pharmaceutical care. Pharmacists are considered as trusted health care professionals and people accept them as counsellors mainly on OTC medicines and self-medication. However, our study has also shown that pharmacists need to pay more attention to the provided
information and should ofer pharmaceutical services on
a daily routine.
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Received for publication on 03rd March 2016
ATTACHMENT: STUDY QUESTIONNAIRE
Please reply to the following questionnaire. Participation in the survey is anonymous. Please, select the most applicable response from the following items!
Age of the respondent (years):
1 2 3 4
25 or less 26 - 40 41 - 55 56 or more
Gender of the respondent:
1 2
Male Female
Education of the respondent:
1 2 3
Primary school Secondary school High school
Your monthly income (euro):
1 2 3
300 or less 301 – 800 801or more
What type of pharmacy do you visit most frequently?
1 2 3 4
Hospital Health care facility Place of residence Shopping centres
What pharmacy product did you purchase most frequently during the last 12 months?
from a community pharmacy? *OTC medicines = medicines, which you can buy without prescription.
1 2 3 4 5
Prescription medicines for chronic diseases
Prescription medicines for acute diseases
OTC medicines Dietary supplements Other
What OTC medicines* did you purchase most frequently during the last 12 months?
from a community pharmacy?*OTC medicines = medicines, which you can buy without prescription.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Analgesics Cold, cough drugs
Medicines for gastrointestinal
disorders
Tonics Analgesic and
anti-inlammatory
ointments
Anti-histamines
Other
How satisied are you with community pharmacy services?
1 2 3 4
Fully satisied Rather satisied Rather not satisied Not satisied at all
How satisied are you with information provided by pharmacists about drugs?
1 2 3 4
Fully satisied Rather satisied Rather not satisied Not satisied at all
How satisied are you with the willingness and approach of the pharmacists?
1 2 3 4
Fully satisied Rather satisied Rather not satisied Not satisied at all
Do you consider the pharmacist to be an expert on prescription medicines?
1 2 3 4
Do you consider the pharmacist to be an expert on over the counter medicines and dietary supplements?
1 2 3 4
Certainly yes Probably yes Probably no Certainly no
Do you trust the pharmacist as an expert on medicines?
1 2 3 4
Certainly yes Probably yes Probably no Certainly no
Which factors inluence your purchase of prescription medicines?
For your answer, please use the scale 1- strongly agree, 2 – agree, 3 – strongly disagree, 4 - disagree
1 2 3 4
Recommendation by physician Recommendation by pharmacist Recommendation by family and friends Price
Advertisement
Which factors inluence your purchase of over the counter medicines?
For your answer, please use the scale 1- strongly agree, 2 – agree, 3 – strongly disagree, 4 - disagree
1 2 3 4
Recommendation by physician Recommendation by pharmacist Recommendation by family and friends Price
Advertisement
What do you expect from community pharmacists during the purchase of prescription medicines? For your answer, please use the scale 1- strongly agree, 2 – agree, 3 – strongly disagree, 4 - disagree
1 2 3 4
Professional counselling
Pharmacist’s guidance on selection of appropriate medicine Respectable communication
Comprehensible conversation Fast and pleasant service
Conidentiality in communication
What do you expect from community pharmacists during the purchase of OTC medicines? For your agreement, please use the scale 1- strongly agree, 2 – agree, 3 – strongly disagree, 4 – disagree
1 2 3 4
Professional counselling
Pharmacist’s guidance on selection of appropriate medicine Respectable communication
Comprehensible conversation Fast and pleasant service
